Looking forward to your review!
Looking forward to your review!
I also have an ebay dental ultrasonic cleaner, must be an Eddie thing.
Great tool but you do have to watch what's going on - the heat and sonic action accelerate side effects as well as cleaning effects. I left reloading brass in a slightly acidic solution for too long and it left them looking like copper, probably by pulling the non-copper metals out of the brass. Those got recycled.
Got the Vevor unit Saturday, took it out to the garage and set it up. I have some pics and video, will upload later.
Initial thoughts:
- The heater function does not work unless the ultrasonic action is also running. I was hoping to be able to run the heat independently, to preheat the water before using the ultrasonic. Looks like that can't happen without some modification.
- Being an engineer with a modicum of knowledge of thermodynamics, I was suspicious of the ability of a 500W heater to get 30 liters of water up to 80 C. In my test run, starting with tap water at about 13 C, running the ultrasonic, it took 6 cycles (max cycle length is 30 minutes), so about 3 hours to get the water up to 80 C. It did get to about 30 C after the first 30 minutes, which is roughly 100F. Someone had mentioned pre-heating the water, which seems like it might be a good idea.
- Pure water seems useless. I tried using just water with an SU carburetor intake manifold that wasn't that dirty, and after 3 hours it was only moderately cleaner. Maybe pure water works better with water- soluable dirt, and not with oil-based residue. Which would make sense.
- The unit is louder than expected. 40Khz is above the human range of hearing, but the subharmonics are definitely there. It wasn't intolerable, but it was noticeable, and drowned out my shop radioplaying at normal listening levels.
I need to buy some Simple green (I was all out) and try it again. I also think long term some sort of small submersible heater may be added to allow me to preheat the water easily without having to listen to the vibrators.
Just some thoughts after a quick reading:
- The Omegasonics I had could run heat independent of the ultrasonic action. This is a must to preheat the water, well worth looking into a rewire
- In my experience, 115-125 degree F was what aluminum is happiest at, any more and it will turn black. Castings more so than billet.
- 316ss and heavier stuff liked 145 degrees F.
- You definitely need some cleaning solution in there.
- The noise will definitely start getting annoying. Run it with the cover on, not only to keep the heat in but to help with the noise.
In reply to Slippery :
I was running it only with the cover on, to retain the heat. Still noisy.
There's a bunch of submersible heaters, ~1500W, on Amazon, for >$20. I think what I'll do is use one of those to preheat, then take it out and then run the unit just with the vibrators.
Thanks for the advice on the temps. Someone suggested the purple power caused aluminum to darken, Simple Green less so.
I might relocate the unit to another room, for the noise issue. Will have to run a new outlet over there.
Thanks for the review! Not being able to preheat the water would be annoying, especially with that large a volume of water. Do you have an idea of how much current it's using while it's doing its heat-and-vibrate thing? If you add a 1500W submersible heater you're going to approach the upper working end of a 15A circuit if you happen to run the heat and ultrasonic concurrently.
In reply to brandonsmash :
The vibrate supposedly draws 600W, the heat is 500W. What I'd probably do is use the aux heater first, then take it out and turn it off while using the ultrasonic, and just not use the internal heater. That would probably extend the life of the ultrasonics, too, not using the internal heater.
I have seen a youtuber place items to clean in Ziploc bags with cleaner of choice and adjusted strength. Then the bag went in the ultrasonic bath topped up with plain water. Saves some fluid change with different cleaners.
In reply to stafford1500 :
That is extraordinarily clever! Thanks for posting that tip (not hack!)
Note also that last time I pinged them (it's been a few years) Simple Green said that their Motorsport stuff is the same as their aircraft stuff, and is safe for aluminum in a way that regular Simple Green is not over time.
I have a Vevor one now (my HF one died) and I am happy with it.
I use several ounces of Pine Sol with water ..... cleaned this apple peeler for
my sister in law with it this morning ....
Air cleaner.... one cleaned 
I ordered and received a 1500W bucket heater, and last night tried it out with the Ultrasonic to preheat the cleaning solution.
I put 5 gallons of water in the ultrasonic basin, added a quart of Simple Green, and laid the heater in the basin so that the heating area was submerged, but the handle was resting on the side of the basin. I plugged it in and within 30 minutes the liquid went from 10 C to 50 C. So that was much faster than using the ultrasonic's internal heater.
I disassembled a particularly cruddy SU carburetor while the water was heating, and let it run for 30 minutes with the ultrasonic on and the heater on to maintain the temperature.
I didn't get an after picture, yet. The parts came out quite a bit cleaner, though there was still some residue I feel the machine should remove. I removed the parts and have them soaking in Mineral spirits now. One issue I hadn't thought of before buying the cleaner was how to rinse the cleaning solution off the parts, since many cleaners will discolor aluminum and rust steel.
I did baggie a bunch of small parts (screws, springs, etc) in some simple green solution and put the baggie in the cleaner. I haven't unbagged them yet, but this was a very convenient way to clean tiny stuff and not get it lost in the machine.
I use this stuff on carburetors. It works beautifully. I also have an ultrasonic cleaner dedicated to it to save me the mess of emptying and filling. It's big enough to do a 4 barrel but you have to flip it to clean both halves.
My larger ultrasonic cleaner is filled with an ammonia solution for cleaning clock movements. It works extremely well for them. I haven't tried it on anything aluminum though.
To get the cleaning solution off the parts, I flush them repeatedly with clean water and blow off most of the water, blow out any passages, and then dry them off in an oven set to around 200 degrees. If you get all the cleaning solutions off the parts, the wife will never know. 
Edit to say: Tiny parts like screws and such usually go in one of these. You can find them on Amazon or any number of clock repair companies like Time Savers.
I used to swear by Chem-dip or Hydroseal but that stuff is getting expensive and the chemicals are really awful.
The last 5 gallon bucket of Hydroseal ate it's way out of the metal pail after about two years.
I'm trying to move away from that stuff. Contact dermatitis is a real thing.
Always wondered if anyone made those chem dip dealies in bigger containers. The gallon paint size is a little small sometimes.
In reply to ShawnG :
Yeah, part of the reason for buying the U/S cleaner is to try to get away from using nasty ass chemicals. They're expensive, and bad for you. And hazardous to store.
In reply to ShawnG :
I don't touch it without gloves on and it hasn't worked its way out of the stainless tub of the ultrasonic cleaner in the last 4-5 years. It does an outstanding job so I don't mind the extra precautions needed to work with it. I'm also only using it twice a year instead of twice a day. That makes a huge difference. If I was a pro I'd probably be leery of the stuff as well.
Vevor 30L is $215 on their site plus a $5 off coupon. Just picked one up for $211 shipped
Did you have to register?
In reply to brandonsmash :
Yes, but I have a burner email for stuff like that. It looks like you can Checkout as a guest and the deal stays.
I just bit on the 30L. $209 shipped on their site right now.
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